Highland District – Senior Photo Session

Highland Collective sculpture, St. John Encampment Commons at ACC and a sister add-on session

This Class of 2024 McCallum Senior met me at the Highland Collective for the start of her Senior Photo Session.

After getting lots of photos around the Little Picchu sculpture and the garage door murals, we headed to the St. John Encampment Commons on ACC’s Highland campus next.

We made sure to take photos that captured her Senior experience working on the high school newspaper staff. (Big thanks to her mom for creating the newspaper montage we used in the background).

Then her younger sister joined us for an add-on family mini-session. You can select to add-on one or multiple family members to the end of a regular Senior Photo Session when you book.

Tips for Senior Photo Sessions in the Highland District

WORKING HOURS: The Highland Collective is open 10am-5pm weekdays. For easier parking, visit this spot on the weekends. And make sure to pick a sunny day to get the light shining through the sculpture.
SCHOOL HOURS: Same idea for the St. John Encampment, visit the park area when school at ACC Highland is NOT in session to avoid crowds and get easier parking.
DISTANCE: The two spots are about a three minute drive apart – so easy to combine in one photo session.

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Please check out some of my favorite images below and contact me if you’d like to book your own Senior photo session in Austin, Texas.

What do you plan to do with your digital photos?

We weren’t super happy with the kids’ school pics this year. The school is using a new photo studio and I found their images a little too contrasty. Plus they do some unsolicited photo retouching — the pics just don’t look like our kids. For their senior pics, the pricing is expensive and the images are the standard canned poses. And for underclass pics, they just have far too many kids in such a small amount of time, that they don’t really have the time to get a natural expression out of Franny. So I was relieved to have this opportunity.

Since we didn’t get school pics this year, we plan to make print outs of the digital images for our family — Gavin’s parents, my sister, my dad’s wife. I also may use one of the images on Alice’s graduation announcement. And Alice is working on a journalism portfolio, so she may use one of her images for that.

What advice would you give to others planning a similar photo session?

Be prepared to walk around and move. Stephanie will likely not just stick to one location, but will instead try a variety to get the best images. You might want to bring things — props, clothing, etc — to help personalize the experience to who you are. Stephanie has a lot of really wonderful creative ideas for locations and poses, but she’s very flexible and collaborative. You should feel comfortable sharing any of your own ideas if you have them — even if it’s just a concept. She will try to work with you to figure something out that looks like you’re imagining.

Anything else you’d like to add about working with Stephanie Friedman Photography?

Stephanie is easy to talk to and works well with teens/young adults. She gives specific directions for posing and if needed, models the pose herself to better help them understand. She’s very positive throughout the process. She knows that kids like to see the pics as they are happening and she takes the time to share some of the images to keep them engaged and involved with the process. She’s also totally organized and mindful of time — something that the parent of two busy kids appreciates!

Interested in a Senior Photo Session?

Contact Me

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